The University of Florida is now part of the Internet2 Innovation Platform–one of only a few universities with its 100Gbps, ultra-high-speed access. Increasing the data capacity from 10Gbps to 100Gbps means UF researchers and their collaborators around the globe have access to transformative scientific capabilities.

“The capacity to move data at 100Gbps is a watershed moment in UF’s research computing environment,” remarked Vice President and CIO Elias Eldayrie. “This ten-fold increase enables UF to make more impactful contributions to the national and international research communities.”

Connecting the Campus Research Network (CRN) to the Florida LambdaRail strengthens UF’s participation in high-impact projects, such as the recently discovered Higgs boson particle, iDigBio, and the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI). These projects all involve massive data storage and computational needs at the Terabyte and Petabyte levels.

The CRN was rebuilt to accommodate the wider information superhighway, said network architect Chris Griffin. But the network is now ready for GatorCloud, a 200 Gbps campus computing initiative under development by Andy Li, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. UF’s computing networks also support Innovation Square and Progress Corporate Park, home to many biotechnology start-ups that originated with UF research. Griffin said he is looking forward to the reactions of scientists as they discover new ways to use the network:

“We want the scientists to get down and dirty with it,” Griffin said. “We’re ready!”